Fighting Bus Hadoken

I went for my usual mid-week LaPa ride on a Thursday this week because of the rain.

I usually aim for leaving at 6ish, but I usually end up leaving around 6:30am.

This means I don't have time for Breakwall.  But 24km is starting to become too little training for me.  I think I should starting adding in an extra Mons.

I smashed my record on Mons by 17 seconds - on my own - with no external challenge (which usually spurs me on faster).

When I go to the roundabout at Maroubra Beach, I had to stop for a bus to go past.

It stopped to pick up passengers and I went past.

Then it overtook me on the slope and as it went past, I felt a massive WHOOSH of air pushing me away from the bus.  I didn't know that's what happened when buses got too close, but now I do.  It was a bit scary but now I know what to expect.

So I played leapfrog all the way up Torrington.  I was using cycling past the passengers as motivation to keep going.

The bus beat me along Malabar Rd (the cycleway does not make me feel so safe so I go pretty slow), but I beat it onto my turn to Moverly.  (It stopped to pick up passengers just before the intersection.  MUAHAHA.

(image via cyclinginfo.co.uk)

Anyway, I smashed a bunch of my records on Strava, so I'm pretty happy.

However, my average speed was lower than my last good ride on the weekend.

But I think this is primarily because I ride slower along the main roads on weekdays due to more traffic.

P.S.  Googling "bus" and "cyclist" for images has scared me a little..  Seems this may be a dangerous combination.

Huge Achievements!

(Image via SBS Cycling Central - In-form Elvin hoping to perform in Santos Women's Cup)

Belated post!

Saturday

(image via en.wikipedia.org)

On Saturday, I did my first average speed of 24km.  I'd been aiming for 24-25 for a while to try and get up to speed with the local group rides.  However, I'd been sitting at 21 for a long while and thought it would be another month before I did 24km/h.  It even surprised my husband!

I had given myself a 15 minute head start of the MC Cyclery Classic Ride and the group came in 11 minutes after me!  I was very happy.  However, I must say, the fear of being caught works very effectively on me!

Sunday

(image via www.dolphin24.org)

On Sunday, I did my first > 50km.  56km to be exact. 

I felt pretty bad in the morning as we had gone out the night before so I didn't get to sleep by 10pm (my usual pre-ride goodnight time).  We planned to do La Perouse and then finish off with some Centennial Park laps.

Mentally I felt pretty bad but tried to get over that.

I went really hard (as hard as I could) at the Breakwall.  I think that opened up my legs.

Then we went to Centennial Park where my husband tried to crack me on a lap and couldn't.  (He actually set some PRs doing this!)

So a pretty good weekend.  My stats are climbing up and I'm in the league of the other road bikers now.  Also, I'm ready to ride on the group rides!

Very exciting!

(image via MC Cyclery on Instagram)

Happy Birthday Me!

Don't you love it when your parents give you cash?

I bought:

I'm not sure if I'm cool enough to wear one, but there will always be a soft spot in my heart for Leo-pard Trek.

Yay!  Now I have 2 jerseys!  There's probably time to wait for them to dry before wearing!

No more wet jersey for me!

AND, big news - I've ordered in a clipless mountain biking shoe.......

Well, "shoes", I'm getting 2 obviously.

IN OTHER BIG NEWS, I did my first > 50km yesterday, but I'll try and write more about that soon.

Distance, Strava Premium (I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman) & Heat

Distance

This is how I feel right now.

My cat Bea

I did 114km on the weekend and I'm pretty sore.  The total cycling for the week was 202.8km.

Week before = 129.4 km (New Years week)
Week before that = 167.3 km (Christmas week)

I remember my husband said once he reached > 200km each week it felt like being burnt out, and I kind of know what he means.  I feel dread at the thought of getting back on the bike.

But I've heard - and I'd believe it - it's all bleagh until you get on the bike and then it's WEEEEEEEEEE!

Strava Premium

(image via theunlockr.com)

I wanted to support Strava because it's a pretty cool app and I would be a bit sad if they shut down from making no money, so I joined up for the premium service.

It's only $59 USD for the year which is $5 a month which is almost nothing.
So I signed up, and then afterwards the message said:

SIGH

Anyway, I get to set a target distance for my week, so I have set it to 173 km (very specific) because it's 4 days of commuting (Monday is my rest day) + 3 x 30 km rides.

I think I will try and keep it not much over this to avoid burning out.

Hopefully it will become easier soon and I can ride a little bit further.  There's always just increasing the amount of hills over flats if I want to make it more challenging without adding distance..

Heat

We rode to the city on Saturday and it was awfully hot.  Felt pretty wrecked afterwards.

The rest of the week looks to be > 30 degrees.

Hopefully my commute won't be too bad being outside the highest points of the day...

Image via http://tunedintocycling.com/2012/07/15/cycling-in-heat-and-humidity/ 

which actually turned out to be a pretty good article about cycling in the heat and humidity.

Speaking of which, I think I may need to invest in more "wicking" material..

The bad thing about riding in normal clothes is I can get sunburnt on the shoulders quite easily as most of my clothes have spaghetti straps / no sleeves..

A few small things

Commuter Bike Wonky

So my commuter bike (bought from Paddington) was a bit wonky when changing gears and so I took it to my local shop (MC Cyclery - who I think are the best) for a service and it turns out the bike hadn't been built properly and the derailleur was essentially set up too wide on both sides and was flicking my chain both into the frame and into the pedals. 

That's a lesson in - if it feels wrong:

1. Take it to the shop and, 
2. Find a good bike shop you trust. 

I was unlikely to go back to the original shop - as towards the end of the purchasing they made a rude gesture when they thought I wasn't looking - but I'm definitely not going back now.

Rain

I made the decision NOT to get fenders on my bike because:

1. I don't intend to ride in the rain.
2. Fenders are expensive.

So this week, there was a bit of light rain here and there and I thought, oh, as long as it's not raining heavily, I'll be fine.

What I didn't expect were the puddles left over from the rainy periods.

But I thought, you know, back wheel flicking water / dirt on my back, that's fine, I can wash my clothes.

What I learnt was, you actually should think about your front wheel a bit more when approaching a puddle.

This is what happens:

(image via beckysaysthings.com)

I love that someone already took the effort of drawing the pleasure of this experience.

And because I'm trying to commute in my work clothes (ie. dresses), it was highly embarrassing not knowing if I had maintained my pretty state of appearance, or if I now had a mud splat across my face / front.

I took my glasses off and wiped my face, and hoped I had gotten most of the debris off..

I've slowed down when approaching future puddles from now on.

Riding To Important Things

I thought I was trapped at work with crappy food choices and then I realised I had a bike and could essentially ride somewhere to eat! So excited!

Bourke Street Bakery here I come!

(image via bourkestreetbakery.com.au)

[EDIT: I had a sausage roll from them today and it was amazing!  Who knew you could get sausage rolls with actual food in them.]

Current Progress / Plan For The Start Of 2014

As I've only started work again (and dropped the ball in the first week of January), I am trying to commute every day (unless for time / weather / drinking constraints, it is easier to drive / bus in).

I'm planning to ride at least 30 km every Wednesday, Saturday & Sunday morning.

I aim to work up to adding the MC Cyclery LaPa ride on Tuesday mornings.

Commuting

I've discovered that commuting is possible in most situations but that the following factors should be considered:

• Max temperature / time of day - riding to lunch can be hot.
• Humidity - mid temperature + high humidity = high temperature

Yep.

However, in other news, my commuter bike has not been stolen yet.  :)

(image via just4lolz.blogspot.com.au)

All Gear No Idea?

So today I bought a $530 pair of glasses for cycling.

Yep, Rudy Project.

Full on.

(image via blog.massagetoday.com)

So yeah, they're pretty much the most expensive cycling glasses..  Most cyclists wear pretty cheap sunglasses.

Reasons why I bought them:

1. My husband has them and they feel really light.
2. You can adjust the nose bits - this is important because I have a flat nose and for my whole life, I've never ever found glasses that sit on my face properly.
3. You can adjust the ear bits - my ears are actually lopsided.  (Although I think this is really common).
4. They have different methods to allow for prescription lenses.  By the way, I went the cheapest option and got the prescription lens clips.  Most expensive at around $1077 was getting the lens built into the frame - this is the most robust option.  I thought this was a bit much since my road bike cost less than that...
5. The glass in the frame are photochromatic (transition from clear to dark depending on the sunlight like transition lenses) so I can use them for cycling and don't need to change them when the sun goes up / down.

So I think it was a pretty good investment, my prescription is pretty weak - I'm shortsighted and don't need my prescription lens in the daylight, I mostly wear glasses at night or at dusk / dawn when the light is low (my husband thinks I'm a dragon because apparently they are the best times to slay dragons because they can't see very well either!)

I'm currently not really cycling at those times, but I guess as Summer starts to / Daylight Savings end, it is likely to be darker when I will be cycling in the morning.

(image via www.rudyproject.com)

The optometrist - Eyecare Plus on Jamieson St at Wynard - are the only Rudy Project dealers in Sydney - suggested the mirror lenses - as they will hide the prescription lens a bit better than the clear glass.

ANYWAY, so it was quite expensive and it's a pretty high profile brand, but I think it should be good quality and suit my needs.

And it's important that I can see as effectively on the road as I can.  That is priceless, right?  :)

NYE Physio Party

Happy New Year everyone!

(image via www.dailytelegraph.com.au)

So at last night's NYE party, after a few drinks, I decided to have some go's at my friend's foam roller..

There may have been better / safer situations in which I could have discovered foam rollering.

But, it was

AMAZING!

Basically, the foam roller can be used to massage your muscles that you can't get to / massage strong enough to get to.

You do this by rolling your muscle over the top of it and using your body weight to push your muscles against the roller.

Example:

This and more exercises at http://www.bicycling.com/training-nutrition/injury-prevention/quads.

Here's a good picture that demonstrates what it feels like - sort of a happy grimace..

(image via runningtowardssuccess.wordpress.com)

I found it good because I'm not good at massaging my muscles - my hands are quite weak.

From dancing, I'm pretty good at knowing stretches for various muscles.

However, the side thigh (specific to cycling) had alluded me for a while. 

I think it's called the ITB (ilotibial band) - 

(image via defygravityfitness.com)

However, I am pretty coordinated, so I can manipulate my body into different positions, so this might work for me.

I just had a look online and you can get rollers for $30..

(image via www.ebay.com.au)

I had a friend who had spoken of the amazingness of the foam roller before, but it's hard to imagine what to use it for without actually trying it / have someone showing you.

There you go.

It is a little bit funny that I'm slowly discovering lots of things that friends had spoken quite highly of before but I didn't believe them, eg. lycra padded cycling pants.

I'm sure I'm going to be that person for others.  :)  Friends will come to me 10 years later and say, "hey, you were right about that thing!".

It's all just a giant cycle of "I told you so".  :p

(image via www.someecards.com)